Atoll K
Encyclopedia
Atoll K is a French/Italian film—also known as Robinson Crusoeland in the UK and Utopia in the US—starring the comedy team of Stan Laurel
and Oliver Hardy
in their final screen appearance. The film co-stars French singer/actress Suzy Delair
and was directed by Léo Joannon
, with uncredited co-direction by blacklisted U.S. director John Berry
.
in the offices of a London
law firm
, where Laurel is to receive an inheritance left by a wealthy uncle. Much to the duo’s dismay, most of Laurel’s inheritance is consumed by taxes and legal fees, and he is left with only a rickety yacht and a private island in the Pacific Ocean
. Laurel and Hardy leave for the island, accompanied by a stateless refugee and a stowaway
(a malcontent Italian
bricklayer).
On the voyage the refugee acts as chef and cooks them a meal, but the food mysteriously disappears from Stan's plate because the stowaway is taking it. This leads Stan to blame Ollie and an argument ensues. The engine then fails, so Ollie removes parts in an attempt to fix it. He hands them to Stan, who puts them on the deck where they slide overboard. Ollie then realises that his efforts were in vain when he notices that the fuel gauge reads empty. Having lost the engine, they hoist the sail, revealing the stowaway hiding in it.
They encounter a storm and Stan battles with an inflating liferaft in the cabin while Ollie is at the helm. They are shipwrecked on a newly emerged
desert island
, which they dub "Crusoeland." They are soon joined by a nightclub singer who is fleeing her jealous fiancee, a naval lieutenant. The island is established as a new republic, with Hardy as president and Laurel as "the people."
All goes well until the singer’s fiancee arrives to confirm the island is rich with uranium
deposits. People from all over the world flock to the island, but soon the situation turns chaotic when a revolt seeks to overthrow and execute the island’s original inhabitants. Before the execution, another storm strikes and floods the island. Laurel and Hardy are rescued and arrive at the island Laurel inherited, only to have their land and supplies impounded for failure to pay taxes.
and signed to make a series of films at both 20th Century Fox
and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
. In post-World War II
Europe, Laurel and Hardy were enjoying a new popularity with audiences that were unable to see their movies during wartime. As a result of this, the pair received an offer from a French-Italian cinematic consortium to star in a film to be produced in France
for $1.5 million, a large budget for the era.
The production of Atoll K was riddled with many problems that caused the production to be extended abnormally. Ida Laurel, Stan Laurel’s widow, told biographer John McCabe
, "I’m hardly likely to forget the date we left for France and the date we returned – April 1, 1950, and April 1, 1951. But there was no April Fooling about that terrible year. That bloody picture was supposed to take twelve weeks to make, and it took twelve months."
From the beginning, there were disagreements on the film’s screenplay. Laurel was unhappy with the storyline envisioned by French director Léo Joannon
and insisted on bringing Alfred Goulding and Monty Collins to aid in the screenplay’s creation (neither man received on-screen credit). There were also considerable problems in communications, since neither Laurel nor Hardy spoke French and Joannon spoke very little English.
During the production, the two comedy stars encountered serious problems. Laurel’s pre-existing diabetes was aggravated and he developed colitis
, dysentery
and a prostate
ulcer while on the French locations for the film. He eventually required hospitalization, and his widow would later fault the quality of the French medical care, claiming that at one point, she had to substitute for an absent nurse by changing her husband’s bandages. Laurel’s weight dropped to 114 pounds, and for most of the production he could only work in 20 or 30-minute spurts.
Hardy, however, saw his already hefty frame expand to 330 pounds while in France, and he required medical care for cardiac fibrillation and the flu. Adding to the medical problems was Italian actor Adriano Rimoldi, who played the stowaway, when he fell from a docked yacht and required a month's recuperation away from the production.
When they were able to work, Laurel and Hardy saw their relationship with Joannon fray dramatically. Ida Laurel would later claim Joannon was an incompetent who spent three days filming a lake because, as she said, "it was the most photogenic lake he’d ever seen." In the middle of the production, US film director John Berry was quietly brought in to work with the comedy team. Berry’s US career was ruined by the Hollywood blacklist
and he sought to start over in France. However, his participation was kept secret out of the fear that the film would not get a US theatrical release if it became known that a blacklisted director was at its helm. Berry’s contribution was not publicly acknowledged until 1967, when film historian William K. Everson
cited the uncredited director’s input in his book The Films of Laurel and Hardy. While Berry never publicly acknowledged his work on Atoll K, the film's leading lady Suzy Delair confirmed his role during an interview with historian Norbert Aping.
version called Atoll K, a 97-minute Italian
version called Atollo K, a 82-minute English version called Robinson Crusoeland in the United Kingdom
(Utopia in the USA) and a 98-minute English version viewed only at British premieres in September 1951.
In the countries where the various versions played, critical reaction was overwhelmingly poor. The French newspaper Journal du Dimanche complained: "What in hell lured Laurel and Hardy onto this atoll? Unfortunately, this adventure adds nothing to their fame." Italian critic Paolo Locori, writing for the magazine Hollywood, stated: "Stan and Ollie's presence is not enough to lift the movie from its mediocrity." The British Kinematograph Weekly stated the film was "bogged down in a welter of obvious slapstick." When Utopia ultimately played in Los Angeles
in early 1955 as a double feature with Blackboard Jungle
, the Los Angeles Times
critic said: "The film gets off with some welcome chuckles but grows progressively worse."
The original complete Atollo K is presumed lost
, a truncated 86 minute print available on DVD
in Italy is all that remains of the Italian version.
No U.S. copyright
was filed for Utopia and the version lapsed into the public domain
, resulting in duplicated prints of poor quality in VHS
, DVD
, Laserdisc
, Super8
and 16mm.
Only the original French Atoll K remains intact, but the film has not been made available for public viewing since a VHS
video release in 1996.
Stan Laurel
Arthur Stanley "Stan" Jefferson , better known as Stan Laurel, was an English comic actor, writer and film director, famous as the first half of the comedy team Laurel and Hardy. His film acting career stretched between 1917 and 1951 and included a starring role in the Academy Award winning film...
and Oliver Hardy
Oliver Hardy
Oliver Hardy was an American comic actor famous as one half of Laurel and Hardy, the classic double act that began in the era of silent films and lasted nearly 30 years, from 1927 to 1955.-Early life:...
in their final screen appearance. The film co-stars French singer/actress Suzy Delair
Suzy Delair
Suzy Delair is a vivacious French entertainer who starred in many different films. Her real name is Suzanne Pierrette Delaire....
and was directed by Léo Joannon
Léo Joannon
Léo Joannon was a French writer and film director. Born in Aix-en-Provence, Joannon was originally a law student who became a novelist and journalist before entering the film industry in the 1920s as a cameraman....
, with uncredited co-direction by blacklisted U.S. director John Berry
John Berry (film director)
John Berry was an American film director, who went into self-exile in France when his career was interrupted by the Hollywood blacklist.-Early Life:...
.
Plot
The film opens with Laurel and HardyLaurel and Hardy
Laurel and Hardy were one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy double acts of the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema...
in the offices of a London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
law firm
Law firm
A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to represent clients in civil or criminal cases, business transactions, and other...
, where Laurel is to receive an inheritance left by a wealthy uncle. Much to the duo’s dismay, most of Laurel’s inheritance is consumed by taxes and legal fees, and he is left with only a rickety yacht and a private island in the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
. Laurel and Hardy leave for the island, accompanied by a stateless refugee and a stowaway
Stowaway
A stowaway is a person who secretly boards a vehicle, such as an aircraft, bus, ship, cargo truck or train, to travel without paying and without being detected....
(a malcontent Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
bricklayer).
On the voyage the refugee acts as chef and cooks them a meal, but the food mysteriously disappears from Stan's plate because the stowaway is taking it. This leads Stan to blame Ollie and an argument ensues. The engine then fails, so Ollie removes parts in an attempt to fix it. He hands them to Stan, who puts them on the deck where they slide overboard. Ollie then realises that his efforts were in vain when he notices that the fuel gauge reads empty. Having lost the engine, they hoist the sail, revealing the stowaway hiding in it.
They encounter a storm and Stan battles with an inflating liferaft in the cabin while Ollie is at the helm. They are shipwrecked on a newly emerged
New islands
New islands are islands which have been created recently, whether by means of vulcanism, erosion, glacial retreat, or other mechanisms. One of the most famous new volcanic islands is the small island of Surtsey, located in the Atlantic Ocean south of Iceland. It first emerged from the ocean...
desert island
Desert island
A desert island or uninhabited island is an island that has yet to be populated by humans. Uninhabited islands are often used in movies or stories about shipwrecked people, and are also used as stereotypes for the idea of "paradise". Some uninhabited islands are protected as nature reserves and...
, which they dub "Crusoeland." They are soon joined by a nightclub singer who is fleeing her jealous fiancee, a naval lieutenant. The island is established as a new republic, with Hardy as president and Laurel as "the people."
All goes well until the singer’s fiancee arrives to confirm the island is rich with uranium
Uranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
deposits. People from all over the world flock to the island, but soon the situation turns chaotic when a revolt seeks to overthrow and execute the island’s original inhabitants. Before the execution, another storm strikes and floods the island. Laurel and Hardy are rescued and arrive at the island Laurel inherited, only to have their land and supplies impounded for failure to pay taxes.
Cast
Principal credited cast members (in order of on-screen credits) and roles:| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Stan Laurel Stan Laurel Arthur Stanley "Stan" Jefferson , better known as Stan Laurel, was an English comic actor, writer and film director, famous as the first half of the comedy team Laurel and Hardy. His film acting career stretched between 1917 and 1951 and included a starring role in the Academy Award winning film... |
Stan |
| Oliver Hardy Oliver Hardy Oliver Hardy was an American comic actor famous as one half of Laurel and Hardy, the classic double act that began in the era of silent films and lasted nearly 30 years, from 1927 to 1955.-Early life:... |
Ollie |
| Suzy Delair Suzy Delair Suzy Delair is a vivacious French entertainer who starred in many different films. Her real name is Suzanne Pierrette Delaire.... |
Chérie Lamour |
| Max Elloy | Antoine |
| Suzet Maïs | Mrs. Dolan |
| Adriano Rimoldi | Giovanni Copini |
| Luigi Tosi | Lt. Jack Frazer |
Production
In the late 1940s, Laurel and Hardy were without film employment. Earlier in the decade, they ended their long association with producer Hal RoachHal Roach
Harold Eugene "Hal" Roach, Sr. was an American film and television producer and director, and from the 1910s to the 1990s.- Early life and career :Hal Roach was born in Elmira, New York...
and signed to make a series of films at both 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
. In post-World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Europe, Laurel and Hardy were enjoying a new popularity with audiences that were unable to see their movies during wartime. As a result of this, the pair received an offer from a French-Italian cinematic consortium to star in a film to be produced in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
for $1.5 million, a large budget for the era.
The production of Atoll K was riddled with many problems that caused the production to be extended abnormally. Ida Laurel, Stan Laurel’s widow, told biographer John McCabe
John McCabe (author)
John McCabe, born Christopher John McCabe on 20th October 1967 to English parents in Vancouver, is an author now living in Birmingham with his wife and two children. He is currently employed by the Division of Medicine, University of Birmingham as Reader in Endocrine Cancer...
, "I’m hardly likely to forget the date we left for France and the date we returned – April 1, 1950, and April 1, 1951. But there was no April Fooling about that terrible year. That bloody picture was supposed to take twelve weeks to make, and it took twelve months."
From the beginning, there were disagreements on the film’s screenplay. Laurel was unhappy with the storyline envisioned by French director Léo Joannon
Léo Joannon
Léo Joannon was a French writer and film director. Born in Aix-en-Provence, Joannon was originally a law student who became a novelist and journalist before entering the film industry in the 1920s as a cameraman....
and insisted on bringing Alfred Goulding and Monty Collins to aid in the screenplay’s creation (neither man received on-screen credit). There were also considerable problems in communications, since neither Laurel nor Hardy spoke French and Joannon spoke very little English.
During the production, the two comedy stars encountered serious problems. Laurel’s pre-existing diabetes was aggravated and he developed colitis
Colitis
In medicine, colitis refers to an inflammation of the colon and is often used to describe an inflammation of the large intestine .Colitides may be acute and self-limited or chronic, i.e...
, dysentery
Dysentery
Dysentery is an inflammatory disorder of the intestine, especially of the colon, that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the faeces with fever and abdominal pain. If left untreated, dysentery can be fatal.There are differences between dysentery and normal bloody diarrhoea...
and a prostate
Prostate
The prostate is a compound tubuloalveolar exocrine gland of the male reproductive system in most mammals....
ulcer while on the French locations for the film. He eventually required hospitalization, and his widow would later fault the quality of the French medical care, claiming that at one point, she had to substitute for an absent nurse by changing her husband’s bandages. Laurel’s weight dropped to 114 pounds, and for most of the production he could only work in 20 or 30-minute spurts.
Hardy, however, saw his already hefty frame expand to 330 pounds while in France, and he required medical care for cardiac fibrillation and the flu. Adding to the medical problems was Italian actor Adriano Rimoldi, who played the stowaway, when he fell from a docked yacht and required a month's recuperation away from the production.
When they were able to work, Laurel and Hardy saw their relationship with Joannon fray dramatically. Ida Laurel would later claim Joannon was an incompetent who spent three days filming a lake because, as she said, "it was the most photogenic lake he’d ever seen." In the middle of the production, US film director John Berry was quietly brought in to work with the comedy team. Berry’s US career was ruined by the Hollywood blacklist
Hollywood blacklist
The Hollywood blacklist—as the broader entertainment industry blacklist is generally known—was the mid-twentieth-century list of screenwriters, actors, directors, musicians, and other U.S. entertainment professionals who were denied employment in the field because of their political beliefs or...
and he sought to start over in France. However, his participation was kept secret out of the fear that the film would not get a US theatrical release if it became known that a blacklisted director was at its helm. Berry’s contribution was not publicly acknowledged until 1967, when film historian William K. Everson
William K. Everson
William Keith "Bill" Everson was an English-American archivist, author, critic, educator, collector and film historian. He often discovered lost films.-Early life and career:...
cited the uncredited director’s input in his book The Films of Laurel and Hardy. While Berry never publicly acknowledged his work on Atoll K, the film's leading lady Suzy Delair confirmed his role during an interview with historian Norbert Aping.
Theatrical release
The theatrical release of Atoll K was erratic. There was no one definitive version of the film but, rather, four different edits available: the 93-minute FrenchFrench language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
version called Atoll K, a 97-minute Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
version called Atollo K, a 82-minute English version called Robinson Crusoeland in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
(Utopia in the USA) and a 98-minute English version viewed only at British premieres in September 1951.
In the countries where the various versions played, critical reaction was overwhelmingly poor. The French newspaper Journal du Dimanche complained: "What in hell lured Laurel and Hardy onto this atoll? Unfortunately, this adventure adds nothing to their fame." Italian critic Paolo Locori, writing for the magazine Hollywood, stated: "Stan and Ollie's presence is not enough to lift the movie from its mediocrity." The British Kinematograph Weekly stated the film was "bogged down in a welter of obvious slapstick." When Utopia ultimately played in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
in early 1955 as a double feature with Blackboard Jungle
Blackboard Jungle
Blackboard Jungle is a 1955 social commentary film about teachers in an inner-city school. It is based on the novel of the same name by Evan Hunter.-Plot:...
, the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
critic said: "The film gets off with some welcome chuckles but grows progressively worse."
Copyright status
Over the years, the prints of three of the four versions have degraded. The only known print of the original 98-minute English version is in private hands and has never been released on video.The original complete Atollo K is presumed lost
Lost film
A lost film is a feature film or short film that is no longer known to exist in studio archives, private collections or public archives such as the Library of Congress, where at least one copy of all American films are deposited and catalogued for copyright reasons...
, a truncated 86 minute print available on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
in Italy is all that remains of the Italian version.
No U.S. copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
was filed for Utopia and the version lapsed into the public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
, resulting in duplicated prints of poor quality in VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
, DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
, Laserdisc
Laserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
, Super8
Super 8 mm film
Super 8 mm film is a motion picture film format released in 1965 by Eastman Kodak as an improvement of the older "Double" or "Regular" 8 mm home movie format....
and 16mm.
Only the original French Atoll K remains intact, but the film has not been made available for public viewing since a VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
video release in 1996.
External links
- FreeMooviesOnline: Details: Watch Atoll K Online for Free for US only (As Utopia)